In the book “Behind The Moves,” Jason Farris spoke with NHL General Managers past and present about how they conduct business and to tell stories about their lives in hockey.

In this story, former Rangers coach and GM Emile Francis talks about an incident including a safe and Glen Sather:

Emile Francis: “[The Rangers] moved into the new Madison Square Garden in February 1968. At the end of they ear, the Philadelphia 76ers were playing against the Knickerbockers…..some burglars came in from in through the Garden roof and down into the Philadelphia [dressing] room and cleaned the players all out. So, the NBA set up a policy that every building that they played in had to have a safe….We were practicing the day before we were going to open the [1968-69] season, and I saw this guy and two [other] guys pushing something. Well, as it turned out, it was a safe….So, now, here we are the next night, and we were going to open [the season]. We had our warmup and I [came into] the medical room and Glen was sitting down there on the floor. [I head a] click, and he opened this safe door up. Just then, our trainer, Frank Paice, Walking in. He said, “Slats, what the hell are you doing? That’s not a toy! You’re not supposed to be opening safes like that!’ Glen said, ‘What kind of rinky-dink safe is this?’…The next day, the safe was gone and they got another one.

Glen Sather “They brought in this huge safe and put it in the training room, which was about the same size. So there was no room in the there, and they gave trainer Frank Paice the combination. Frank was trying to undo the lock, and I watched him, memorized the combination and then everybody left. Emile was there, and a guy by the name of Jack Cullen was showing half a dozen executives the big safe that they had put in there that was going to protect everybody’s valuables. I said, ‘that safe is nothing. I can open that in a second.’ Of course, they said, ‘Bullshit.’…So ding, ding, ding, and I opened the safe. Well, the safe was gone that afternoon and we got our training room back.

Note: Glen Sather played for the Rangers from 1970 to 1973 so the dates from Francis are likely incorrect.